Urgent information on the additional labelling of Deccox with GM soya bean oil

12 July 2016

We have been advised by Zoetis UK Ltd that all batches manufactured historically and all of the currently available stock of Deccox® 6% w/w Premix for Sheep & Cattle (Vm 42058/4032) contains 2.85% soya bean oil sourced from genetically modified soya beans. It may take up to 6 months or more before Zoetis have non GMO Deccox available.

Zoetis is pleased to confirm that, following agreement with the VMD, re-labelling of the existing stock of Deccox currently under their control is not required and the stock they have on hand is now freely available. However, they have been asked to inform the feed industry that any feed produced using the impacted batches of Deccox should be labelled in accordance with the requirements of EU Regulation 1829/2003 and 1830/2003.

In practice this means that all products containing Deccox must henceforth be labelled to identify the inclusion of soya bean oil and that it is produced from GM soya.

Soya bean oil will need to be listed in the composition section in the appropriate place by descending order of weight. The inclusion of 833g of Deccox 6% premix per tonne of feed to provide 50mg decoquinate/kg feed will supply 23.74g soya bean oil per tonne of finished feed and as such this ingredient will most likely appear at the end of the ingredient list.

We have contacted AIC to enquire whether an industry approach to remove this labelling burden from the feed industry can be negotiated but at this point in time we have to advise you to proceed as detailed above.